It also includes a new wave of downtown development: nearly $400 million in restaurants, shops, offices, condos and apartments within blocks of the tracks.

The question, however, is who would pay for it.

A recently released consultant's study suggests a new local sales tax and a tax on nearby parking spaces could be needed to help build and operate a Grand Rapids streetcar system.

But supporters say it is too early to talk about new taxes.

They say they would rather focus on going after private donations -- otherwise, streetcars will go nowhere. Federal funds are not available for construction.

"It will be like everything else in Grand Rapids -- public and private partnerships," said Jeanne Englehart, president of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce and a member of The Rapid's Public Transportation Tomorrow Task Force.

"You're going to have to have partnerships because it's a big project and it's expensive," Englehart said.

The big question from business leaders is whether a streetcar system can be sustained over time, she said.

"This is an extraordinary exercise in going back to the future," said former Grand Rapids Mayor John Logie, referring to the late 1800s and early 1900s, when streetcars dominated city streets.

The price tag already has climbed: from an estimated $69 million when proposed last year to nearly $79 million, or $24.8 million a mile, if it were built today, according to the study by DMJM Harris.

By 2012, the cost is expected to jump to $29 million a mile -- a total of $87 million.

The Rapid has committed more than $800,000 to the project: It spent nearly $360,000 for the study and recently received a $480,000 federal grant to continue.

The consultant expects private donations will pay for up to half the project and suggests selling naming rights.

Don Stypula, director of the Grand Valley Metro Council and a task force member, said he believes Grand Rapids is up to the challenge.

"We are ideally equipped, both in our ability to work together in the public and private sector and just in terms of the overall health of our downtown," he said.

Taxing issue

The 32-page consultant report says cities in other states have relied on local sales taxes to help build their systems.

In Michigan, that would require a constitutional amendment and approval of local voters. A 0.25 percent sales tax in Kent County -- on top of the state's 6 percent -- could raise as much as $18 million a year, the consultant wrote.

Local leaders mention other possibilities: levying a special tax on new development along the route, borrowing money through a bond.

"There are a lot of different ways to skin this cat," Logie said.

Local supporters say the benefits would far outweigh the costs. The consultant says streetcars will generate nearly $5 in development for every construction dollar -- particularly on parking lots and riverfront land

Logie was among local supporters who visited Portland, Ore., where a streetcar system helped spur development.

"For a 10-block area, you can see the ripple effect," Logie said. "It's like taking Legos and stacking four Legos up right next to the (rails). One block away, stack it three up, another block away, stack it two up, another block away, just one up."

Supporters say development naturally follows new transportation systems -- no different than what followed the opening of M-6 in southern Kent County.

"We don't expect freeways to fund themselves, do we?" said Don Lawless, a local attorney who chairs The Rapid board of directors.

"People will make decisions about development and employment based on that transit being there. It's just like the people who make decisions about where to put a new university and a Meijer because they know that the freeway is going to be there."

Lawless says streetcars would make the city more "walkable," lead to fewer cars downtown and less need for parking. Workers who want to eat at Charley's Crab, for instance, could catch a streetcar instead of driving.